What This Is

This is a format, not a topic. Five of the seventy questions on the AP exam share a single reading passage about a computing innovation, and they are the only questions on the exam that require you to read something long before you can answer anything.

It is also where the largest slice of the exam lives. Reasoning about computing innovations is 28–33% of the multiple-choice section— more than any other skill, including writing code.

How to Do This One

• Read the whole passage first. All of it, before you look at a single question. It is tempting to skim and hunt; on a shared passage that costs more time than it saves.
• Set a timer for 12 minutes. Longer than the other sets, because the reading is part of it.
• Every answer is in the passage or follows from it. Nothing here needs outside knowledge about rideshare companies. If you find yourself using something you already believed, check that the passage actually says it.
• Mark each answer sure or unsure, as always.

The Passage

RIDESHARE AND THE CITY

A rideshare service matches riders with nearby drivers through
a phone app. Riders enter a destination; the app finds a driver,
quotes a price, and tracks the trip from start to finish.

Prices are set by the program, not by the driver. When many
people request rides in one area at the same time, the price in
that area rises automatically. The company says this pulls more
drivers toward the busy area, so riders wait less.

The app records every trip: where it started, where it ended,
how long it took, and which route the car followed. The company
uses this to predict demand. It has also published parts of it,
with names removed, for city planners studying traffic.

In several cities, bus ridership fell after the service arrived.
Some riders switched from buses to rideshare. Transit agencies,
which are funded partly by fares, cut service on the routes that
lost the most riders. Those routes were mostly in outer
neighborhoods, where fewer households own cars.

The service requires a smartphone, a data plan, and a payment
card. About one household in ten in the city has none of these.

The Questions

Question 1

Which best describes the purpose of the innovation?

• (A) To collect trip data for city planners
• (B) To connect riders with nearby drivers and manage the trip
• (C) To reduce bus ridership
• (D) To raise prices when demand is high

Question 2

The automatic price rise in busy areas is described as having a beneficial effect. Which statement best describes a harmful effect of that same feature?

• (A) Drivers may choose not to work in quiet areas
• (B) Riders who most need a ride during a busy period may be least able to afford one
• (C) The company collects route data
• (D) The app requires a smartphone

Question 3 — Select all that apply

Based on the passage, which contribute to a digital divide in access to this service?

• (A) A smartphone is required
• (B) A data plan is required
• (C) Prices rise when demand is high
• (D) A payment card is required
• (E) Trip data is published with names removed

Question 4

The passage says bus service was cut on routes that lost the most riders, and that those routes served neighborhoods where fewer households own cars. Which best describes this outcome?

• (A) An intended benefit of the innovation
• (B) An unintended harmful effect falling hardest on people who did not use the service
• (C) Evidence that the innovation has no harmful effects
• (D) A data privacy problem

Question 5

The company publishes trip data with names removed. A researcher notes that a trip which begins at the same house every weekday morning and ends at the same office may still identify someone. This is a concern about:

• (A) Lossy compression
• (B) The digital divide
• (C) Whether removing names is enough to make data anonymous
• (D) Crowdsourcing

Submit

Five answers, each marked sure or unsure, plus how far you got when the timer went off.

Then one sentence: which question did you have to go back into the passage for? That tells us both something about how you read it the first time.

Worth 4 points, graded on completion.